Nick Sirianni

Q. I am going to ask you one question you’re not going to answer and one question you will. How is QB Jalen Hurts doing today? Do you have any update on him? And B, we haven’t seen QB Tanner McKee. I wanted to get an update on him and how he’s been doing in case he has to play. What have you seen from him and how confident are you if he has to go in there? (Reuben Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: Jalen is in the concussion protocol. When that happens, we just lean on the doctors to let us know on a daily basis where he is.

As far as Tanner goes, he and [QB] Kenny [Pickett] have been getting a lot of reps on scout team and in our developmental periods. I think both of them have done a really good job there and are continuing to develop.

Q. I saw you guys finished three of 16 on third downs. Was there a common thread you noticed after watching the film of why it was inefficient on third down? (Chris Franklin)

NICK SIRIANNI: A lot of different reasons go into it. Obviously, our goals are to be well above that on third down, so we didn’t hit our goals. I think we’ve been pretty good these past couple months of the season on our third downs after starting a little bit slow.

Yesterday wasn’t up to our standard. We were able to convert on three of three on fourth downs so we kind of look at it that way, too. But we weren’t good enough coaching, and we weren’t good enough playing there in our third down scenarios yesterday.

Q. You said before that QB Jalen Hurts does a pretty good job of protecting himself. Would you have liked him to have slid there? (Jeff McLane)

NICK SIRIANNI: He always has done a good job protecting himself and has been dynamic both as a passer and as a runner. Any time something goes down and you lose one of your best players, you wish they would do something else or not take that hit in that scenario.

We always run runs that protect him, and we always want him to protect himself. Again, this is an unfortunate part of football, the injuries that happen. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s with head injuries, and you never want to see that because you always want what’s best for your players and their wellbeing.

Obviously don’t want him to take that hit.

Q. You used the word “sloppy” a lot after the game. After watching it back, what were some of your takeaways on a larger scale defensively that let you guys down? (Jeff Neiburg)

NICK SIRIANNI: A lot of different things. I think when you talk about that, too, it’s never just, ‘Hey, this is defense’ or ‘Hey, this is just offense’ or, ‘Hey, this is just special teams.’

You’ve got to look at the big picture of it. We were unable in the second half on offense — we put four field goals on the board, right? We finish one of those drives, it’s a different scenario for the defense.

Then you think about your kickoff coverage, and that wasn’t up to our standard. So, we gave them a really good field position multiple times. We gave them a short field on a turnover as an offense.

All these things play into it.

I’m always going to talk to you guys about and talk to our guys about– we had some missed tackles yesterday that gave up some extra yards. We weren’t on the same page here and there. We gave them some free yards on penalties. There were some sloppy things that we had as a defense, but everyone contributes to those 36 points being put on the board, like I said, with the offense and the special teams.

This is a team sport, and it takes everybody. Just like we get excited about complementary football when we take the ball away and then punch it in on offense or have a big return and do something good on offense, the same can be said when it doesn’t go your way as well.

Q. How do you go about game planning on offense this week without knowing who the quarterback will be? Do you almost have to have two game plans ready? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: There are different approaches that we take with that. It depends on skillset of guys and the different skillsets. Sometimes it’s to give the player the things that he operates well at; sometimes it’s what you’re going against with the defense.

Just like you would when a wide receiver is out of the game or a defensive back is out of the game, you adjust. This is no different. You adjust. There are a lot of similarities. There are little differences, but there are differences.

But it’s just something that you adjust to, and this is the unfortunate part of the NFL. We’ve had a lot of experience doing this with different positions and that includes the quarterback.

Q. Quarterback obviously is a little different though than a receiver. How much does that change? (Dave Zangaro)

NICK SIRIANNI: What I’m saying is every position requires — what’s bigger or what’s smaller of an adjustment, you guys can debate that. What I’m saying is, every position that you are without a guy that’s normally playing there is an adjustment to be made, and quarterback is no different.

So, there will be an adjustment that we have to go through. I’m not going to sit here and say this is how much adjustment, but every time there is a player out there is an adjustment to be made.

Q. Did you get any further explanation as to why S C.J. Gardner-Johnson was ejected in that game? On a larger point when it comes to guys like him and DT Jalen Carter, who obviously play with a lot of fire, do you accept that there will be things like that that come along with that style of play? (Tim McManus)

NICK SIRIANNI: No further explanation there. Again, I’ll always keep my conversations with the league between us and the league. But no, I haven’t had any further conversations there.

No, you never want to have penalties like that. I always encourage our guys to be themselves, have fun when you’re celebrating, play how you play, but do it within the confines of the rules.

That’s something I say to our guys all the time. That’s the same message here. Obviously, you don’t want those situations. I love how much energy and fire those guys play with, but obviously at no point do you want them to get a penalty or is it acceptable to get a penalty.

But, like I said, there is a reason we have an edge on defense. We have really good players who play with great passion and great fire. That’s huge. We just always have got to understand and know to do it within the confines of the rules.

Q. Yesterday, QB Kenny Pickett was saying after the game that he was going to get his ribs tested today. I was wondering if you had an update on that. Also, the value of having a guy like Kenny as a backup, someone who started for two years in Pittsburgh, being able to come in cold like he did yesterday. (Martin Frank)

NICK SIRIANNI: No new update there. Kenny did some really good things there yesterday. Obviously, we missed Jalen. Jalen is a great football player who has had tremendous success and led us to a lot of victories. So, we missed him and his contributions to the team and leading the team.

But Kenny, under the circumstances, came in and did a nice job and played good football; gave us a chance to win the football game.

Obviously, he’s going to want some plays back, but he did a lot of good things. That’s the nature of his position, that they have to be able to do those things without reps. Everyone knows that. They don’t get a lot of reps there.

Now, we try to do as much as we possibly can as coaches, and we kind of thought about this, too, going all the way back to Gardner, who wasn’t with us in the pre-season. We had to find ways post-practice and pre-practice to get him meaningful reps, and we’ve tried to do the same thing with Kenny and Tanner getting meaningful reps at developmental periods so they have opportunities and chances to rep our plays, not just the scout team plays.

But a great job by Kenny doing everything he could do to help this team win yesterday. He played tough, made some big plays and made some big throws, and did a lot of good things.

Q. Coaches often talk about the high points never being as good as you think it’s going to look, the bad points never looking as bad. After the film, what did you like coming out of that game? (John McMullen

NICK SIRIANNI: I thought through everything our guys just stuck together as a team. I think we played with relentless effort and toughness. I thought that those were things that were highlighted. We had five turnovers on defense. We were able to do some good things. Had some explosive plays on offense. Made some kicks on special teams, in that second half particularly.

Now, at the end of the day like I said, our detail needs to be better in things. I have to coach better, we have to coach better, and our detail has to be better. But our guys fought like crazy until the very end.

Obviously, it wasn’t enough to win the game, but I know how together this team is and how tough and how much relentless effort this team plays with. That was on display against a good football team yesterday.

Q. Just to follow up on QB Kenny Pickett, if you got bad news on him, how comfortable would you be moving forward with QB Tanner McKee if you needed to? I know you said that the quarterback uncertainty doesn’t change the game planning process, but from a practice schedule perspective, I’m sure you were going to do some things this week with the holiday. Does that change at all? (Bo Wulf)

NICK SIRIANNI: All I said was every position requires adjustments. I kind of generalized it. Every position requires adjustments when the guy is not in there; quarterback is no different. It’s going to require adjustments.

As far as our practice schedule, we’ll adjust things as we need to. You guys will see how this week is playing out. We’ve got a lot of things to balance, a lot of things to juggle. It’s not just about one position. There are many positions and groups to think about, and where we are here at this point of the season.

I’m sorry, Bo, what’s the other part of your question?

Q. If you had to move on to QB Tanner McKee, how comfortable would you be? (Bo Wulf)

NICK SIRIANNI: Tanner has done a good job in scout team and developmental periods, and so, again, Tanner gives us a lot of confidence; Kenny gives us a lot of confidence. That’s just a tribute to [Executive Vice President/General Manager] Howie [Roseman] and his staff of all the pieces that he has given us to work with and the depth he’s given us to work with.

We’ve had to play deep into our O-line. We’ve had to play deep into our secondary. Yesterday we had to play deep into our quarterback. We’ve got a lot of confidence in the guys that are on this roster, both the 53-man roster and the practice squad.

There is a reason every one of them is here, and it takes every one of them to help us get each and every victory that we have gotten.

Q. Understanding the concussion protocol is out of your hands and in the medical staff’s hands, the players who are cleared in one-week’s span, it’s typically not until the end of the week. Would QB Jalen Hurts be able to play if he doesn’t participate in practice? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: Each and every week is a different scenario. What I’ve seen is Jalen knows how to prepare, knows how to get himself ready. He’s a true pro. I just can’t say enough good things about Jalen. Jalen the player, Jalen the leader, Jalen the person.

Every week is a little bit different, and I know Jalen does everything he can to get ready for each and every week regardless of the circumstances.

Q. And then if I could ask a follow-up to that, would you want to see QB Jalen Hurts get work before the playoffs at this point? (Zach Berman)

NICK SIRIANNI: You know, just taking this one week at a time. I’m not going to get too much ahead of ourselves. We have work to do, and so we’ve got a really good football team that’s playing good football coming here to play.

So, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.